BOBBY PACQUIAO remains an unknown commodity in the US despite being the brother of boxing star Manny and the softspoken banger has a chance of making a name for himself if he topples a big-named opponent in Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez Saturday (Sunday morning in Manila) at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
The younger Pacquiao is the underdog in their super-featherweight slugfest but during Friday’s official weigh-in, the Filipino fighter displayed a well-chiseled body that very much looked like his big brother.
Pacquiao weighed in 130 lbs, while Hernandez, originally from El Salvador, came in at 132. They rumble beginning at 6 p.m. (9 a.m., Manila time) underneath the world lightweight title rematch between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.
As a show of support, Manny flew to Los Angeles from Manila late Thursday evening and immediately headed to the gambling capital so he could give pointers to his sibling who will receive a hefty $90,000 in only his third fight on US shores.
Joining Manny here is wife Jinkee and business associate Wakee Salud.
A win over the wildswinging Hernandez will open up more big-money fights.
Bobby is coming off the biggest victory of his career, a stoppage of hot prospect Carlos Navarro in February. In his American debut late last year, Bobby outpointed the mediocre Oscar Villa-Arrieta.
Bobby began training for the Hernandez fight as early as July. He arrived at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood of Freddie Roach in the third week of August.
Meanwhile, the World Boxing Council (WBC) has ordered that the Jan. 21, 2006 rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales is a title eliminator in the super-featherweight division.
Reporting from Linea de Concepcion in Spain, site of the 43rd WBC convention, president Jose Sulaiman said the Pacquiao-Morales bout set in Las Vegas will likely decide who Marco Antonio Barrera would face next.
Barrera is coming off a lackadaisical showing against Robbie Peden of Australia.
